I love Shout! Factory TV. Or ShoutFactoryTV. One word, separate words, with or without the exclamation mark… however you spell it, I love ’em.
And I’d never even heard of Shout! Factory TV until last month. Well, upon reflection, that’s not entirely accurate. I had heard them before…
I have fond childhood memories of WKRP in Cincinnati but, due to music licensing issues, the show had been pretty much butchered in syndication. In brief, edits removed the original songs, using stock muzak in their place and in scenes where the original actors had dialogue over background music, well, those were redubbed with soundalike actors. Ugh.
In 2014, Shout! Factory acquired the rights to the series for DVD release and managed to restore about 85% of the original music and the original actors’ dialogue. That alone earned them “Hero Status” in my books. But I read about it and forgot about it. And them.
I “discovered” them this time completely by accident. My wife and I, needing a respite from the doomscrolling the internet seems to provide little else of these days, wanted to watch a “feel good” show so we went with Gilligan’s Island. I have it on DVD. Everyone should.
At least half, if not more, of my enjoyment from TV and film comes from behind the scenes, on the production side of things. Whether it’s the casting, an actor’s interpretation of a character, a choice the director made staging a scene, something the cinematographer did… It doesn’t matter, it’s all interesting to me. It’s not uncommon for me to pause a show to look something up. If it’s a show I’ve watched many times, I won’t even pause it as I’m researching whatever caught my interest at the moment.
Having grown up with Gilligan’s Island in re-runs I’ve read pretty much all there is to read about every aspect of the show. And one thing I knew is that Bob Denver, before becoming known around the world as “Gilligan”, played a beatnik character named “Maynard G. Krebs” in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. But I’d never seen the show. I knew what it was about. I’d read up on it before but I’d never watched it and on a whim I poked around the internet and found the full pilot episode on YouTube, on Shout! Factory’s channel. One click lead to another and I was on their website.
Oh, my giddy aunt! It was like being a kid in a candy store or on Christmas morning… or like being a kid in a candy store ON Christmas morning! I love TV’s “golden age”. I love sci-fi and pop culture. I don’t know how I didn’t find them before. Oooh, the shows they have!
First off, they have all four seasons of Dobie Gillis and I have to say, even though we’re only half way through Season Two, that I’ve once again revised my opinion of my favourite American TV show. In fact, I’ll be writing more about the show in a future article because, well, it’s bloody brilliant in so many ways.
But there’s more, so much more. Like this discovery I made…
Yes, that’s right. That’s the Godzilla Film Collection! And I’m talking about the real Godzilla films, the originals from what’s known as the Shōwa Era, from 1954 – 1975. I loved these as a kid and now, watching as an adult, there’s still something there. Including a message that only the Japanese can tell us, so clearly and starkly conveyed by the brilliant Honda Ishirō back in 1954, that resonates all too clearly in 2022.
Alright, let’s step back from that thought, shall we. After all, a respite from the current state of the world is what lead to me Shout! Factory TV.
Have I mentioned that I love ’em?
Sadly, they don’t have everything and some shows are incomplete or region locked. For example they have The Lone Ranger series from the 1950s, starring Clayton Moore as The Lone Ranger (and then John Hart and then Clayton Moore again) and Canadian icon (and lacrosse hall of famer) Jay Silverheels as Tonto but, of 221 episodes, Shout! only has 16 of them. They have The Highlander series, starring Adrian Paul but only the first season and they have ALF but we found that region locked and unavailable in Canada.
Still, there’s simply so much to watch and enjoy. They describe themselves as “…a digital entertainment streaming service that brings timeless and contemporary cult favorites to pop culture fans…” and they do that in spades. They also produce original content. And later this month they’re launching a horror-themed channel, Scream Factory TV.
Whether they’ll add an exclamation mark in there at some point I can’t say. I think they should.
Without my even being fully aware of it, Shout! had been giving me enjoyable entertainment for a few years already. I’m glad I actually “discovered” them this time. They’ve given me more I want to watch than Netflix. And at no charge.
Have I mentioned I love ’em… yeah, I think have.
I blame Star Trek for that.
(Star Trek 1966-2005 RIP)
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